Suzanne Culberg, 34, from Singleton was first put on a diet when she was just four years old, so she could fit into the flower girl’s dress for her sister’s wedding.
And for the past 30 years, the mum-of-two has been in a vicious dieting battle, weighing 150kg at one stage – she now weighs 71kg and she shares her secrets with New Idea.
“In 2015 I weighed 150 kg and I was at a point in my life where I had tried ALL the diets, and nothing was working in the long term. I was exhausted, I was a chronic yo-yo dieter and was always either restricting myself or binging. From my first diet at age 4, I have lost and regained more than 500 kilograms, and I was just DONE,” says Suzanne.
“Dieting was over, but I didn’t have a plan. I spent months in contemplation mode. I was addicted to before and after stories, I would scroll all the stories and view the pictures. Overeating was my escape – it helped distract me from the problems in front of me.
“I was just waiting for the ‘right time’ to start. There had to be a moment of clarity, like THE moment telling me ‘this is it’. Eventually tired of waiting for the moment to come, one Tuesday afternoon at 4pm I cleaned out my pantry and just started. I would love to say I haven’t looked back, but in the three years since that moment I’ve had several pantry clean outs, because this isn’t something I’ve committed to once, it’s something to recommit to every day, in every choice,” she adds.
Before Suzanne would binge on a family block or two of chocolate, ice cream, and raw cookie dough, but now Suzanne only eats when she’s hungry and she sticks to healthy foods only.
“I eat on a hunger scale of -2 to +2 (where -10 is starving and +10 is over full / stuffed). I eat when I start to feel hungry and I stop when I have had enough. Some days I eat frequently and other days not much at all. I am an intuitive eater now,” she says.
Suzanne’s Day on a plate
Breakfast: porridge, with protein powder, stewed fruit and yogurt
Lunch: Sheppard’s pie or a chicken or beef curry (no rice)
Dinner: Soup or stir-fried vegetables (tend not to eat meat in the evening anymore)
Snacks: often don’t have them, but nothing is restricted, so will eat if I am hungry as I eat on a hunger scale
